Rachel Carroll Never Stopped Searching for Jesse Farber

For 10 years, Rachel Carroll refused to give up hope of finding Jesse Farber.

Farber, the father of her two children, disappeared in 2015 after a frantic phone call in which he claimed he was being chased by coyotes.

Last week, State Police confirmed that human remains found in Walker Township belong to him — but for Carroll, the search isn’t over.

“It consumes you,” Carroll told The Canary in a recent interview. “No matter what you do, it’s always on your mind. What could I do more? Who could I reach out to? It’s hard to describe. I put my life into finding him.”

A Decade of Searching

Carroll says she’s essentially spent every day since that August 2015 phone call trying to learn what happened to Farber. Over the years, she worked with search teams, volunteers, and even a private investigator who used phone location data to narrow down possible search areas.

That work paid off this fall.

Carroll says she first heard in August that possible remains had been found in a part of Walker Township that had long been a focus of their searches. On Sept. 27, she returned to the area and made a discovery that confirmed what she knew was likely the reality throughout the course of her efforts over the years.

“It was shocking and upsetting. When we found the pants on the 27th, it confirmed it was him,” she said. “They were completely buried, like under two inches of dirt. I saw bones sticking up, just enough that it caught my eye. We just kept finding more and more.”

Additional searches turned up more remains. Then, a week before State Police publicly confirmed the identification, Carroll says investigators privately told her the remains were indeed Farber’s.

“It was still a shock to hear it,” she said. “Once we started finding the remains and found the pants, I felt very numb. I had to stay in fight mode to bring him home. When they confirmed it, reality really started setting in. We figured he wasn’t here anymore. It’s still just as much of a shock.

“It’s really upsetting,” Carroll added. “I’m still trying to process that he’s not coming home.”

Parenting Through the Unknown

When Farber went missing, their son was five and their daughter was just one. Explaining his disappearance was one of the hardest things Carroll faced.

“They both had a pretty hard time,” she said, adding that it was especially difficult with her son because he was more aware at the time.

“We couldn’t give him an answer as to why he wasn’t here. They finally have some kind of answer,” she said. “I’m happy we do have an answer even though it’s not what we hoped for.”

Throughout the decade, Carroll says she tried to balance her endless search for Farber with protecting her children from the emotional toll it took on her.

“I didn’t want it to be their life,” she said. “I’m just trying to be with my kids and family at this time.”

Hope for Others

Carroll created the Finding Jesse Farber Facebook page to keep the community informed — and to connect with others facing the same heartbreak. The page became both a search tool and a support network.

“I’ve met a lot of people who are in my shoes,” she said. “It’s helpful to have someone that understands what you’re going through.”

The outpouring of support since the discovery has been immense.
“It’s overwhelming,” Carroll said. “My mind is still pretty boggled.”

And while Farber has been found, Carroll says her work continues — both to locate all of his remains and to help others who are still searching for missing loved ones, including those looking for missing Pottsville man Zachary Vidal.

“It’s crushing to know what they were going to have to go through,” she said.
Her advice to others: never stop.

“This isn’t impossible, as long as you keep fighting,” Carroll said. “Don’t give up. They’re out there. They didn’t just vanish.”

^{Photos submitted by Rachel Carroll}

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